Goodman Realty Group has sold Heights Village Plaza, an upscale 55,000-square-foot shopping center in the Northeast Heights, for around $7.2 million. The deal is the largest shopping center sale in the Duke City this year and could have ramifications for the redevelopment of Winrock Town Center.

Hajjar Management, a Boston firm that manages 75 properties nationally for East Coast investors, acquired the center at Juan Tabo and Montgomery. It is Hajjar’s second shopping center acquisition in the Duke City in the past 18 months. Earlier, it acquired Unser Plaza out of foreclosure for well below the $6.5 million original list price.

Several observers in the Albuquerque commercial real estate market said the Heights Village deal might be a way for Goodman Realty to help finance the building of Winrock’s first phase, which includes a food pavilion, a 3,000-seat Regal Cinema and several restaurants, such as BJ’s. Goodman has been self-financing the first phase of his project and this week was demolishing the former Winrock Inn.

Colette Wharton, asset manager for Goodman Realty Group, did not link the Heights Village deal with financing Winrock.

“We got a great offer after we turned it around, achieving what we planned to do with it. I don’t think the sale from Heights Village will fund Winrock. If anything, it will allow us to consider acquisitions in surrounding areas,” Wharton said.

Heights Village is a 100 percent leased center on 5.07 acres anchored by Sunflower Market. The lease that made the center an attractive acquisition was Dollar Tree, according to David Chavez, a partner at Base 5 Retail Partners.

“The catalyst for getting this deal done was Michael Armijo Butler [a Base 5 partner] getting Dollar Tree to take a 14,000-square-foot lease there in the fourth quarter [of 2011]. Without that deal, there was no way you could sell that property.”

The Dollar Tree deal pushed the center’s occupancy to 100 percent. Other key tenants in the center include Bank of America, which has a freestanding location, and restaurants Il Vicino and Zorba’s. Sunflower opened in February 2010 and infused new life into the center.

Base 5 represented Hajjar in the deal. Chavez said Hajjar investors typically hold property for the long term. Base 5 has been gaining traction since forming in 2011 when Kino James broke with NAI Maestas & Ward.

Among the firm’s recent lease deals was North Face’s lease at ABQ Uptown.

With Heights Village sold, Goodman’s Albuquerque retail portfolio includes five centers totaling more than 1 million square feet. Heights Village was its smallest center, but among the best located. Winrock is potentially the largest. Goodman has been trying to redevelop it himself, after banks failed to provide construction financing. Goodman spent around $30 million to redevelop the historic Hotel Andaluz in downtown Albuquerque, and that fledgling boutique property has yet to throw off a profit.

Lack of financing and anchor tenants have slowed the redevelopment of Winrock, once the city’s second-largest enclosed mall, but Goodman has gained traction this year.

A formal groundbreaking for the redevelopment was held in May and several high-profile anchor restaurant signings were announced earlier in the year, including BJ’s Restaurant and Genghis Grill. Work on the BJ’s site and Genghis Grill’s redevelopment of the former TGI Friday’s restaurant is under way. Both are expected to open later this year.

The largest new restaurant for the center, at 24,000 square feet, is potentially Dave & Busters, but its construction has yet to start. That deal is still in doubt as its site plan needs the approval of Dillard’s, an anchor in the center.

At $600 million, Winrock is by far the largest project Goodman Realty has tackled in the Duke City. The sale of Heights Village could provide a few seeds to help get it planted.